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Guidelines for design of in-patient prescription charts

Guidelines for design of in-patient prescription charts.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS Medical Director, Dame Christine Beasley, Chief Nursing Officer and Dr Keith Ridge, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer have written to colleagues about guidelines for design of in-patient prescription charts.

The letter provides information on work undertaken by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, in liaison with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the Royal College of Nursing, on improving the design of in-patient prescription charts used in hospitals. The Department’s aim is to coordinate and stimulate various improvement areas in relation to safe use of medicines, including education and training and good practice guidance.

Guidelines have been published for those organisations and staff involved in the use of medicines to ensure that patients receive their medications safely and effectively. Individual organisations will need to decide on benchmarking their in-patient prescription charts against the recommendations and whether there is a need to improve the drug charts currently in use.

Published 9 September 2011